The robot is in preliminary design but expected to be the height of an average adult, have a motorised base with wheels and a ''head'' that is a 360-degree, panoramic camera. It will navigate around the museum and avoid bumping into visitors and objects using sensors and a type of global positioning system.

The robot will initially be used by school students, who will control the camera head using computers as if in a video conference. The camera can transmit many views of an object simultaneously - from above or the sides, zooming in and out - so each user can control what they see. ''It's like the physical presence of students at a museum - they can all look wherever they want to,'' says the Canberra museum's manager of education, David Arnold. The robot is a great example of where such institutions can go with technology, he says.

School excursions could change, says Jonathan Roberts, the research director of the Autonomous Systems Laboratory at the CSIRO ICT centre in Brisbane. ''It could change the way schools interact with institutions like the museum,'' he says. ''Currently they have to go on long excursions … whereas with this sort of thing, maybe they can visit for 45 minutes, within their normal lesson time.''

German researchers tried to remotely control a robot in museums 12 years ago but were hampered by limited technology, Dr Roberts says. The robot will be put on trial for six months later this year and could be ready by mid-next year.